Outside Cable News

Via B&C
MSNBC Making News Interactive
“Spectra” Will Allow Visitors to View News in a Three-Dimensional Space.
By John Eggerton

MSNBC is taking news deeper into the interactive gaming world of the Web to reach surfers where they live and play.

The cable news network Monday unveiled its NewsWare suit of digital tools that it says will allow Web surfers to get their news in “fun, surprising and useful ways. How much fun and surprise? In the new NewsBlaster online game, players have to “smash orbs holding live news headlines”.

It also is introducing Spectra, a new way to view the news in three-dimensional space. MSNBC says that includes news stories appearing as “colorful, graphic whirlwinds.” Or, if the surfer has a Webcam, content can be accessed with body motions, or triggered by the color of clothing.

>Update: Link to MSNBC’s NewsWare.

Via StarTribune
CNN’s Roberts says enough’s enough on questions about Rev. Jeremiah Wright
By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK - CNN’s John Roberts declared his interview with Barack Obama on Monday a “Rev. Wright-free zone” to telegraph he wouldn’t ask the Democratic presidential contender about the controversy over his former pastor.

The reference was flip, but Roberts primarily talked about Iran, the gas tax and the economy during a six-minute interview with Obama that aired at 6:20 a.m. EDT.

During appearances last week at the National Press Club and elsewhere, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright repeated his beliefs that the U.S. government may have developed the AIDS virus to infect the black community and that the U.S. had invited the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Obama denounced the remarks.

The first 11 questions that NBC’s Tim Russert asked Obama on “Meet the Press” on Sunday were about the Wright matter.

Roberts said it was clear that nothing new had been said about the issue for a week, and that many of his viewers believed it was time for CNN to move on.

“Rather than spend one second of time on an issue that isn’t really relevant to people because there’s been no news on it, I thought I’d spend the time talking to these candidates about issues that really matter to people,” he said.

Roberts, co-host of CNN’s morning program, interviewed Hillary Clinton an hour after talking to Obama. He didn’t ask her about Wright, either.
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Via NBCUNI Media Village
PROGRAMMING NOTE: NBC NEWS & MSNBC COVERAGE OF NC AND IN PRIMARIES TOMORROW

MSNBC
Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews will anchor MSNBC’s special live coverage of the primary tomorrow, 6 p.m.-12 a.m. ET from MSNBC Election Headquarters in New York, with Williams, Russert and NBC News Special Correspondent Tom Brokaw joining to provide analysis, along with NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd and MSNBC Chief Washington Correspondent Norah O’Donnell with the latest exit polls. Dan Abrams will anchor special “after hours” coverage, 12 a.m.-2 a.m. ET.

NBC News Chief White House Correspondent and host of MSNBC’s “Race to the White House” David Gregory will lead a panel including MSNBC political analysts Rachel Maddow and Pat Buchanan, and Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post.

MSNBC’s political “Insiders” former Congressmen Joe Scarborough and Harold Ford, Jr. will provide insight and analysis throughout the evening.

NBC News correspondents Andrea Mitchell and Ron Allen will report with the Clinton campaign; Lee Cowan is with the Obama campaign and Kelly O’Donnell reports from the McCain campaign. NBC News correspondent Kevin Corke will report live with the “mean green streaming machine” hybrid SUV from polling places throughout Indiana for MSNBC.
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Via Reuters
Prison sentence for ex-CNN financial pundit upheld
Reporting by Leslie Gevirtz; Editing by Braden Reddall

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Monday upheld the 160-month prison sentence handed down to a former financial news television personality who admitted to fraud, with the court saying the sentence was “reasonable.”

Todd Eberhard, a stockbroker and frequent guest commentator on CNN’s “Moneyline” and other business news programs, pleaded guilty to 11 counts of investment advisory fraud, wire and mail fraud and obstruction of justice in September 2004.

During his plea hearing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Eberhard admitted to making excessive trades in clients’ mutual fund accounts, in a practice known as churning, to generate commissions for himself.

He also admitted to stealing client funds through unauthorized transfers and said his crimes occurred from 1993 to 2003.

Eberhard worked through two Manhattan-based companies that he controlled: Park South Securities, an investment advisory firm registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and EIA, an unregistered financial services company.
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Via TheStreet
By David Morrow
Eric Bolling Joins TheStreet.com

We have some exciting news here at TheStreet.com. Eric Bolling, the renowned television personality who is currently a host on Fox Business Network, has joined TheStreet.com as an outside contributor.

I am thrilled to have Eric with us. He’s the ultimate contributor who can write, speak, and share his broad experience. Eric specializes in commodities, resource trades and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and will bring analysis in all those areas — and more - here at TheStreet.com.

Eric is truly a renaissance man. He’s one of the few people I know who is a former professional baseball player — in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization — a former Wall Street trader and a television personality, all in one lifetime.
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Via Daily Record
Students in Hanover put questions to CNN’s Soledad O’Brien
Journalist interacts with kids, raises funds for school
By Rob Jennings

FLORHAM PARK — “CBS Evening News” anchor Katie Couric, rumored to be on her way out amid disappointing ratings and critical reviews, is being treated “unfairly and badly” by the media, according to CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien.

O’Brien, who spoke Thursday afternoon at the Brooklake Country Club after touring the P.G. Chambers School for children with special needs, described Couric as a friend who remains stoic even in private about her turbulent situation at CBS.

“She and I talk a lot. I’ll say, ‘I know it must be difficult,’” O’Brien, 41, the keynote speaker at the school’s fundraiser, said in response to an audience question.

“She has never said anything that would indicate to me she’s stressed,” O’Brien added.

Women’s plight

O’Brien suggested that the challenges facing Couric — the first female solo anchor on a traditional network evening newscast — were nothing new and indicated that women would continue facing obstacles in journalism regardless of what happens to her.

“I don’t know how that will impact opportunities for women because I don’t think there are a lot, anyway,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien, who joined CNN in July 2003, is an anchor and special correspondent for its Special Investigations Unit. She is best known for her coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in Thailand.

O’Brien mused that fading viewer interest in the traditional evening news programs ultimately might work to the benefit of women.
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Via PR-inside
Massachusetts Governor Patrick and Former Florida Governor Bush To Discuss Biotechnology Innovation and Development At 2008 BIO International Convention

Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) George Goodno, 202-962-6660 The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) today announced that Governor Deval Patrick (D-MA) and Former Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL) will discuss Biotechnology: The Role of Government in Facilitating Research and Discovery in 2009 and Beyond at the 2008 BIO International Convention. The keynote discussion will take place Tuesday, June 17, at 11:45 a.m. in the San Diego Convention Center.

Neil Cavuto, anchor of Fox Network’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” will facilitate the discussion, focusing on what government can do to foster innovation and growth in the life science industry. The discussion will also investigate what will be required of the new administration and our national leaders to foster biotech innovation and discovery, not only in the U.S. but also in the ever expanding and changing global marketplace.

>Read the rest at PR-inside.

Via LVRJ
Patriotism served with fear, loathing on the side
By DOUG ELFMAN

Depending on your worldview, Sean Hannity’s “Freedom Concert” co-starring Ollie North probably sounds like A) a real patriotic good time, B) a crazy joke, or C) tiresome politics from either major party.

Hannity, the conservative Fox “News” star, was preaching to the choir at the Orleans Arena — 3,100 mostly older people enjoying a Saturday night.

Hannity was their jester.

“Liberals can move into our neighborhoods — if they can afford it,” he scoffed.

He also thought it was funny to say liberals wish America would act nicer to al-Qaida.

Conservatives in the crowd could have been nicer to Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain. When Hannity introduced a prerecorded video message from McCain, the crowd offered a sparse and polite golf clap. Pockets of people moaned.

They were happier watching Hannity do impressions of Bill Clinton coming on to women. He said the crowd must miss Bill. “Nooo,” they jeered, and a man near the stage cracked that he did “miss” Bill, as a shooter would, but he wants to take “better aim” at the former president.

The bulk of the audience looked to be at retirement age or nearing it. This is not ageism, but it suggests: Where is the next generation of Republicans?
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